The Curious Business Guide

Simpler business finance & investment - is fintech the key?

Money in, money out. The life breath of a business. Yet it is possibly the most stressful and confusing part of running a business.In this episode we speak with Andrew Moon of the Swoop platform which aims to 'make it easy for businesses to source and save money they need to grow - all in one place". "Swoop uses machine learning to enable small companies to apply for multiple sources of funding through one portal. Cutting through some of the noise to identify funding that actually fits a company makes a big pile of sense." - The Sunday TimesAndrew guides us through:Why there is no one size fits all - there are multiple financial vehicles available to fund your business it's not just a loan or investment.Funding and finance can be a jigsaw to best fit the business needs.How the right finance support can simplify and improve the chances of getting accepted for the appropriate finance options.Demystifying the process of getting finance, getting investment and better managing business costs.Getting help with large grant applications and the thorny problem of match funding.A financial health check and how it could save you money.Swoop work with a wide range of lenders and investors, as well as offering a review of costs to ensure you're getting the best for your money and making savings where you can. All this and no cost to the business user.If you want to know more got to you can visit the Swoop Funding platform or simply register and speak to one of their advisers.Register on Swoop 

Designing for business growth

A recurring theme with most of the businesses I come into contact with is how to brand, market or promote their products or services. The approach most take is pretty functional – a website, a logo, a brochure and so on. Kind of piecemeal style. To be honest, and this is a personal view, you might as well throw any money you spend into the bin as this approach will generate exactly the same piecemeal rewards if any at all.All marketing collateral – that’s the term used to lump logos, websites, brochures etc – owes its success and impact to a common design core – part of your brand. Getting that design element right so it truly reflects the experience your customer wants from your product or service and then translating it into hard working tools is something that only an expert can do. But most of us don’t understand the nuances and skills in doing this and perhaps don’t truly understand the impact that brilliant design can make.In this episode, Gwyneth Box of Tantamount, a design agency based in Warwick, guides us through using design impactfully and its role as the most public representation of brand. Tantamount has a long track record in impactful and engaging design by developing 'tools' and 'assets' that offer real interactivity and engagement with their clients’ customers.Together we explore:The philosophical concept that is brand values.How deep brand and design needs to go - this is not pretty pictures.How you can avoid becoming a dysfuntional brand.Why being prepared to invest for the long term makes good sense when spending on design.Interactivity and rich data that can transform your marketing approach.How design can be both sales person and teacher.And I get overexcited about the endless possibilities...To find out more about Tantamount visit their website:https://tantamount.com/Or contact Gwyneth at:gwyneth@tantamount.com

Awards - it's not all about the winning

If you thinking entering business awards is about winning, you couldn't be more wrong!Sometimes my LinkedIn timeline looks like an awards celebration parade and often find myself wondering if I should be trying to do the same?I’ll be honest, I’ve sort of felt Awards were a nice to have rather than necessity and, on those occasions I’ve entered an award or been part of a team entered for awards, I’ve wondered if the time could not be spent better. Don’t get me wrong, if we were shortlisted I did enjoy the party!A few weeks ago I met up with someone who showed me just how wrong I was in not actively pursuing awards as part of my wider promotion and marketing strategy.That person is Rachel Hargrave of The Awards People. Her expertise is helping businesses to target and win awards that support a business’s strategy and growth – and the results speak for themselves. Most of her clients use this under-used route to expand their networks and reach their potential customers as a key part of their marketing mix. And of course, there is kudos in winning an award in your market, area or sector which confirms to current clients that they’re dealing with the right people.I asked Rachel to join me today as I found our conversation eye-opening and extremely useful in understanding how to use not only winning, but simply participating, as part of your overall profile raising activity and to drive business.In this episode, Rachel explains:How a strategic and sustained approach to entering awards delivered 6 figure growth for one client.Why being on the shortlist can be as affective as winning an award.Why it's about being in the room.Using awards as a fundamental part of the marketing and sales mix.How to get started yourself.How to get help and use an expert to increase your chances.Why a 'new' to award entry is of benefit.If you want to find out more, Rachel Hargrave has tons more information on her website and is always happy to have a chat:https://www.theawardspeople.co.uk/Or drop her an email:rachel@theawardspeople.co.uk

DISCover - How to build a team

Perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of running a business is managing the individuals who make up your team.  There is a lot of hyperbole around ‘people are our greatest asset’ but within the hot air is a fundamental truth – without the people to answer phones, run machinery, make deliveries, that is to do the day to day tasks that make a business tick there is a strong chance that there would be no business.I have yet to come across a team that works smoothly together and those that do have often invested significant time into reaching a point of cohesion that works. But how do you even begin to bring together a group of individuals into a well-oiled, productive and supportive team.To explore this more and guide us on how to achieve that distant nirvana I’m joined by Sara Osborn of Discover. Sara specialises in helping in those first steps towards building a dynamic team through using recognised methodologies to help everyone better understand their team mates and themselves.In this episode we explore:How a lack of cohesion within a team or a business manifests itself.How this can affect the individuals and their managers or leaders.Where to start if you want to unpick what can often be behaviours that are already well embedded in a team.What the DISC method is and how it can be used to start the process of building a team, from scratch and with mature, existing teams.What the business owner/ team manager can get from the exercise.What’s in it for the individual team member.How to use the impactful insights to make things happen.You can find out more from Sara Orsbourn about the DISC method at:https://www.discovercoach.co.uk/Or drop her a line:sara@discovercoaching.co.uk

LinkPOS Ltd & Collectors Assemble Ltd

In this episode, made for the Growing Pains series, Jamie Williams of LinkPOS Ltd and Collectors Assemble Ltd explores the challenges of growing multiple businesses whilst bringing a new innovation to market. This session delves into how to make sense of complexity and ambiguity in a business.Getting focus on an opportunity - the pros and the consWhen growth and innovation coincideThe none-too-straight innovation pathLooking outside the UK for marketsDeveloping leadership during rapid growthThe LinkPOS EPoS system was developed for small, independent retailers and came to market in beta form just as the opportunity to buy a second comic book store to add to the Collectors Assemble family came on to the horizon. This situation kicked off the support between Jamie and his coach Rachel.